A Duel of Personalities
by ashangel101010
Summary: Sequel to "Such Boundless Pleasure" story. Kylo is Matt. Muriel is Lisa. David is David. And no one really knows who Armitage is.


A Duel of Personalities

* * *

Suggested Theme:

Main Theme- Dead Souls by Joy Division

* * *

A golden-dyed lock liberates itself from its gel prison and curls over Matt's right eye. Matt tucks the rapscallion curl under the tip of his glasses. He knows that his hair hates gel, but it goes with his attire for tonight.

 _A red sweater vest with a gray shirt and gray slacks. Not too tight because it wouldn't go with my image. Tight shirts and pants are for Kylo. And I am Matt, Armitage's boyfriend._

He even has a gift for his boyfriend: a barrel-sized tuber planter. Kylo paid a visit to the Agrarian Technicians this morning and received it as tribute.

 _For Yun-Shuno. I really need to get Armitage tested. But is there a way to test "godliness?" Or maybe, Yun-Shuno is like a split personality that got all of his Force powers. Or it was just some intense Force-vision that I would be better off forgetting._

He lightly kicks at the ship, hearing Armitage's ancient ship groan. The ramp to the ship goes down, and he climbs up to see his boyfriend waiting for him.

 _By the Netherworld, he is Yun-Shuno!_ Armitage is dressed in the skin-tight, red dress that Yun-Shuno wore in his dream. He has to tear his eyes from the nipples poking through the dress like the dress is made of tissue paper.

 _It's not Yun-Shuno! Armitage's hair reaches his waist and he doesn't have the headdress on. And he isn't going to give me a dubious blowjob._ Yet, his pants tighten all the same.

"You're dressed so well!" Armitage remarks with a blush like he's a bit embarrassed of his outfit.

"You're dressed like…your statue!"

"Yeah, it's not as fancy as yours, but it's comfortable." _And rippable._ One Force-tug, and Armitage will be bare before him. Kylo could do that. But not Matt.

"Really?"

"Yes, it's made of a customized oozhith. Oozhith is the Shaper variant of a cloaker, which in itself is a bodysuit made of photosensitive cilia to blend in surroundings. Oozhiths can't _cloak_ perfectly like cloakers because the cilia, inside and outside of them, feeds on microorganisms in the air which causes it to shimmer." _It's alive! But there's no Force in it. Did it come from another galaxy?_

"Is that like clothes for the Yuuzhan Vong?" _Without the Force, I would barely remember what I learned about the Yuuzhan Vong on Saijo._

"Yes, even slaves before the Yuuzhan Vong War were issued cloakers. Probably because you never need to wash them." Matt sniffs as subtly as his big nose would allow. He smells something salty like a sea breeze and citrusy like a fruity tea.

"Can you grow them like tubers?" Matt grins and lifts up the barrel. Armitage chortles like a mad Vjun fox.

"Yes, and we better get it to my lab." Armitage takes hold of the bottom of the barrel and helps Matt carry it inside the ship. Matt hears the ramp go up as they walk like crabs to the lab door. The door slides open with a rusty hiss.

The lab thrums with the same Force-less life as Armitage's dress. Half the lab is taken up by a giant brain-looking computer with branches of green coral growing out of it. There are opaque, golden sacs hanging from the coral like shuura fruit.

He realizes that Armitage's lab was once a medbay when he sees a medbay bed that's been converted into a desk. There is a pile of datapads stacked atop each other like a pyramid, and there's a rainbow-colored, meter-long viper atop the pyramid like an ancient god demanding tribute. Sheeva bows like a supplicant before it.

By a pile of hand towels are a pair of hands. These hands are green with starry indigo coloring its fingertips. There are five digits, and the pointers' tips are shaped like mini-saw blades.

"What in the Netherworld is that?" Armitage lets go of the barrel, indicating to Matt to leave it there.

"By _that_ , I presume my entire lab?" Matt nods, and Armitage continues with a grin. "The giant brain over there is actually a living computer known as a qahsa by the Yuuzhan Vong. It contains five out of the cortices for the Shaper protocols. The five cortices act as a memory bank for Shaper knowledge, and coupled with my Shaper hand-gloves, I can access it."

"Shaper hand-gloves?" _They look like humanoid hands to me!_

"You see when a Shaper Initiate becomes an Adept, they go to the Grotto of Yun Ne'Shel. First, they must bathe in the hallucinogenic liquids there as a purification ritual. Then, they go to this chamber where they stick a hand or hands down a creature's mouth to have them amputated. Finally, they proceed to the pool where they stick their arm or arms into the waters in order to receive their Shaper hand or hands."

"I-I take it you couldn't do that, which is why you have the gloves?" Armitage's grin is replaced with a disappointed pout.

"Considering how I was the first non-Yuuzhan Vong to become a Shaper, my Master believed that it wouldn't be possible for the organisms in the pool to create Shaper hands with my human genes, even if they are slightly mutated. So she created the gloves that way I can actually be a Shaper and keep my hands." He rubs his mismatched hands together.

"….That's amazing." Matt gulps dryly, imagining Armitage slipping them on like leather gloves and ordering him to suck on the fingers. _"Be careful around the blades, my pet."_

"Matt? Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I was just trying to imagine you creating something with them and the….living computer." Armitage brings his right pointer finger to the bottom of his thin lips and winks.

"Maybe later, if you behave yourself during our movie date."

Matt's pants become even tighter than before.

* * *

Armitage's room is filled to the brim with all the secrets that Armitage has not divulged. The secrets are incased in lacquer wood and grouped together according to age.

The oldest secrets reside by Armitage's daybed. One secret reveals a newborn Armitage, swaddled in a white blanket, being held by a pale man with long, white hair, green eyes, and a long nose. Another reveals Armitage on a stool with a book of a white dragon in his toddler hands; he is reading to a homely woman with mousy brown hair. The final one reveals the Commandant sporting a bristling, ginger beard and his arms around the pale man, while the pale man had his spidery hands on Armitage's thin shoulders. They were smiling like a happy family.

The next oldest hang by Armitage's bookshelf like Nar Shaddaa wind chimes. One shows Armitage in the front center of an alien crew comprised of Nagai, Chiss, and some Zeltrons. Another shows the purple cape of a Nagai with a belt of blades; the Nagai smiles secretively at him. The final one reveals Armitage before entering the Academy with ginger hair reaching his knobby knees.

The youngest parallel above Armitage's vanity. One displays aliens with tattooed faces of bats stretched over skulls dressed in a black jumpsuit clinging to them like Armitage's dress. Another displays Armitage in his full goddess regalia, speaking before freed slaves. The final one shows Armitage with a muscle-bound alien, their hands clasped together, unsmiling, but their eyes ache with love.

Matt sees nothing of Armitage's teenage years like he skipped it altogether.

"Didn't you go to the Academy?" He asks as Armitage pulls out a worn chest from under the day bed.

"Yes, I did. I was ten when I entered and sixteen when I left." He briefly watches his boyfriend's small ass wiggle as Armitage rummages through the chest.

"Then, where are all the holos?"

"The Commandant took them when he left." Armitage's voice does not crack; it softens like a wave hitting sand on a beach, leaving behind sad little bubbles.

"Why?" Matt blurts and regrets it when Armitage stills.

Armitage lets out a pleased gasp and pulls out a holoprojector. The holoprojector reminds Matt of a droid that his uncle tinkered with. The droid was boxy and rusted, not even worth scavenging for spare parts.

"How old is that projector?" Armitage hums and rolls his eyes back like the answer is written somewhere on his mind.

"As old as the ship, I reckon!" Armitage tries and fails to imitate a Wild Space accent. "The Commandant said that the ship dates back to the Sith Wars."

"How the pfassk is this ship not scrap!?" _There were many Sith Wars, but the first dated back almost 4,000 years ago! And the last one was a millennium ago!_

"Because it's been lovely cared for by my family for decades." Armitage answers as pleased as a sihan peach. He closes the chest and puts the holoprojector on it. He then goes to the other side of the room where he physically yanks a metal wall back to reveal his closet. The closet is no bigger than Kylo's broom closet on his ship.

Yet, this one can fit all of Armitage's clothes: skirts in every color of the rainbow, shirts that went out of style decades ago, shoes that come in only in slippers and sandals, and pants ripped by accident. And the shelf holds a couple of bed sets and spare pillows. He pulls out a white sheet.

He then hangs the white sheet over the wall that the holoprojector and bed is facing. He secures it with hooks dangling from the ceiling. Finally, he dims the lights.

"I hope you got all of that."

"Why?"

"That way you can watch on the big screen whenever you're here!" _Oh wow, it's like he's giving me the keys to his apartment._ Matt blushes lightly at this milestone.

Armitage grabs the pillows from the closet and arranges them atop of the daybed, almost turning the bed into a fort of pillows.

"Take your seat, Matt, and I'll start the movie!" Matt shuffles to the bed and takes the left side. The bed squeaks like it's not used to anything heavier than a feather. Armitage presses several buttons on the projector. It comes alive with a light whirr.

" _David and Lisa?" Why is it in black and white? I thought all the old holos were in blue? Who the Hells is Keir Duella? And I don't recognize any of the subsequent names listed. Kark, it's one of those "Classic" holos!_ Matt light bites down on his bottom lip to prevent a groan from slipping out. He detested _Classic_ holos because that's all Han and Chewie had on their ship. The only redeeming feature of them was the fashion shown.

"This is the only other holo I have of Keir Duella that doesn't involve him being a star-child!" Armitage whispers excitedly as he sits right by him. He molds himself right into Matt's side as though he naturally belonged there.

"What is the holo about?" _And what the kriff is a "star-child?"_

"You see the boy in the suit standing like he has a rod up his arse; he's David, one of the main characters and played by Keir Duella." _Well, I can't blame him since his mother acts so damn nosy and is probably lying to the doctor about not abusing David._

Then, David begins to scream at some geeky boy for touching him.

 _Oh Force, if this is the entire movie, I won't abandon my date. But I'll insist on the next movie date at my place!_

David and the doctor talk to one another with the mother finally gone.

" _I WANT A LOCK INSTALLED ON MY DOOR IMMEDIATELY!"_

 _The doctor shakes his head._

" _That's one of our rules. Things look in pretty good shape here. We could talk for a while."_

" _Dr. Swinford, I submitted to extensive testing and other nonsense for two full days last week. I'm here I'll go along with the routine. With the indignities. But, frankly, I don't care for any more interviewing."_

David and the doctor continue to talk with David being hostile, while the doctor being calm.

"What is wrong with him?" Matt whispers to Armitage as David cries in his room.

"Nothing." Matt frowns. The scene transitions to a dark-haired girl stomping in a room with a fireplace and a portly adult gently telling her to stop. David leaves as the girl tries to find more words to rhyme with _how_.

 _So this is a school for "exceptional" youngsters? I must admit this might be the nicest-looking nuthouse I've seen in a holo. And they get to have clubs? Skywalker never let us have clubs…_

David is hostile to his fellow "classmates" and then runs off when one of them shoves a table into him for being rude. Then a montage ensue of David attending class, knowing he's smarter than everyone else there, and avoiding people.

 _We're back to the crazy, rhyming girl. I bet she's Lisa._

" _I'm not a lump and I liked to jump."_

" _You're a girl, Lisa!"_

" _I'm not a lump. I'm not a lump. I'm not a lump."_

Lisa holds her wrist to her mouth and cringes for a moment. She then calms down and picks up a sketch pad. She draws on it, while David watches with interest for once.

 _She's Muriel when she can't rhyme. So she has a split personality? So what damaged her?_

The scene fades out. Lisa sees David measuring with his ruler and sits by him. She is quiet until David looks up from his work. She shows him a sign _PLAY WIT ME_.

" _It's 'with' not 'wit.' Here, I'll show you."_

He takes her sign and gently corrects her spelling. He mocks her hair, but says he'll play with her. She stares at him and then goes away.

Lisa draws off her sketch pad and onto the walls. The portly man keeps telling her to stop. He takes her crayon, and she stomps around. But then stops and smiles right near David.

" _John is a louse. A big, fat louse on a little, gray mouse!"_

She stomps away, while David stops John to give his two credits about Lisa/Muriel.

" _My diagnosis is adolescent schizophrenia. Undoubtedly of a chronic variety. You follow me?"_

" _Yes, I do."_

" _Lisa has a very difficult time with authoritarian figures. It is extremely important that you adopt an attitude of permissibility with her. Therefore, you shouldn't have taken away her crayon. Even though she marked the wall."_

Lisa comes back for John, and John sincerely says that he wants to hear more about it from David. And then touches him on the shoulder. David screams at him again and says John hates him.

The scene dissolves into a surreal dream. There's a giant clock ticking, and David is pushing the axe-tipped, clock hand to cut off John's head. He cries himself awake.

 _Finally, David and the doctor have a pleasant conversation. He's talking about the clock dream that he's been having for years. And then teases that the doctor will be next. Force, this doctor is saint for putting up with him._

Lisa and David are in the art room. David asks what her name is.

" _Me the same. Lisa the name."_

" _Me the same. David the name."_

" _Look at me. What do you see? What do you see?"_

" _Lisa. I see. Staring at me."_

She smiles and gets closer to him.

" _Don't touch. Don't touch. All else will do, but, please, no such."_

" _Foolish talking. Foolish talking."_

She reaches out to touch, and he pulls back.

" _Don't touch. No such."_

" _No such. No touch."_

But Armitage touches him. Lays his head on his shoulder. Matt touches his hands, rubbing his thumb over Armitage's burnt one.

" _Look at me. What do you see? What do you see?"_

" _Lisa I see looking at me._

" _David, David, here we are. Come away, far, far!"_

" _Not now. Not today. I say some other day. I say, Lisa, why must we rhyme? So hard and it takes so much time."_

" _Fun, David, can't you see? Rhyming stuff so she then can be."_

" _That's why you rhyme! You don't have to be Muriel when you rhyme."_

Stomping sounds a lot like his heart beating. Armitage doesn't seem to mind.

" _Lisa! Come back. Come back, I'll rhyme. I'll rhyme this time."_

" _Rhyme, time, FLY. RHYME!"_

" _Don't touch me."_

He snakes his hands up his mismatched arms, caressing his naked shoulders.

" _Don't touch me."_

" _Don't touch me."_

Armitage's hands works up his sweater, tickling his abs with nails.

" _Lisa!"_

" _Muriel! I warn you!"_

He fiddles with the top of Armitage's dress. Armitage's spidery fingers slide down to his belt buckle.

" _Don't touch me."_

* * *

"So what do you think of the movie?" Armitage purrs into his neck as he stretches lazily against him like a sated nexu after an exquisite hunt.

 _I remember the first thirty minutes, but when he took off my pants, everything got fuzzy after that. Well, except me struggling to get my blasted shoes and socks off!_ Matt can see his slacks tossed nearby the ancient projector along with one of his dress shoes. The other shoe is located underneath the squeaking daybed.

"Muriel or Lisa was cute, loved her black schoolgirl attire. Not fond of her stomping, but her rhyming was striking. David….he got better through her and the doctor. And the doctor was potrayed to be professional and kind." _I wish my parents took me to a doctor like him rather than Skywalker. Maybe then I wouldn't be lying to my boyfriend about myself. But then I wouldn't have ever met Armitage._

"I'm not certain how accurate the holo was in portraying mental illness, but it seemed the most reasonable. Most holos either ham it up to a full-blown psychosis or make it seem instantaneously curable. Both go back to the school at the end and, presumably, continue their treatment there. But together."

"David was driven nuts by his mom, right?"

"Actually, it seems more like both his parents worsened his haphephobia and obsessive compulsion with their constant fighting. The mother would act passive-aggressively and belittle David's father before him, while the father would storm out. Seeing such dysfunction day in and day out would affect anyone."

 _Mom would complain about Han's harebrained smuggling schemes, while Han would leave us for months at a time. But I didn't find touch revolting like David. It just made me sometimes question why they got married in the first place until I catch them making out in the pilot chair._ Matt wrinkles his nose in disgust at the horrible memory of his parents' tongues down each other's throats.

"I'm actually quite glad my parents weren't like that."

"I thought the Commandant cheated on his lawful wife with your mom." Armitage's pulls his head away from his shoulder and looks at him with wide eyes.

 _Me and my stupid, big mouth!_ Matt wishes he could disappear.

"I don't have a mom."

"Did she die in childbirth? Or did she abandon you." Armitage shakes his head vigorously.

"I don't have a mom because she never existed. I just had father and the Commandant."

"Father and the Commandant? Oh, so you had two dads!" Armitage nods. "So I guess there was a surrogate then?"

A shake.

"Adoption?"

Another shake.

"Grown in a vat like a clone?"

Yet another shake.

"If it's none of that, then how?"

"My father was a human-mutant, so one of the quirks of his body was to carry a child. Unfortunately, he couldn't birth me since he lacked those parts, so a cesarean had to happen to bring me into the universe. It's a good thing that they did it in the hunting shed because Maratelle wouldn't stand for the afterbirth ruining her new floors!" Armitage beams like he's completely proud of his unusual conception.

Matt gapes in silent horror.

"Oh, father didn't die from that. He just….went away around the time Swift spirited the Commandant and I off of Arkanis." He nearly misses the last part because Armitage mutters into his neck.

"So he abandoned the both of you?" Armitage jerks from his embrace.

"My father did not abandon us!" He exclaims.

"Then what do you mean by _went away_ if he's not dead?" Armitage's green eyes turn watery blue.

"He had to leave for my sake. And it's not like the First Order was going to let him in. Maratelle divorced the Commandant, but father and the Commandant never married."

"I thought the First Order needed children, so wouldn't it make sense to have as many breeding partners in the FO as possible?" Armitage sighs deeply.

"The FO is made up of Old Imperials. Do you really think Imperials would allow a _sub-human_ like my father to join them? And, besides, they looked down upon adultery. Pfassking hypocrites." Matt smirks, remembering the saucy stories that Han would tell about his time in the Imperial Academy. _"Lots of Imperials slept their way up the ladder."_

"So where is he?" Armitage's eyes drift to the white sheet to the black dot in the center. The movie ended some time ago, and the holoprojector didn't go off like most modern ones.

"With the Commandant. Somewhere. Living happily ever after." _Without me_ , Matt sees etched into Armitage's face.

"….Do you hate them?" _I hate mine, but I abandoned them._

"No, I want them to be happy wherever they are, even if I never see them again." He smiles sadly. "That's how love works for me."

"I won't do that to you!" Matt vows, and Armitage's smile broadens. Yet, his eyes remain blue.

* * *

 **Author's Comments-** Here are the links:

Here is an image of what inspired Matt's outfit: a href=" is/image/TMW/MW40_692M_11_JOSEPH_ABBOUD_HERITAGE_RED_MAIN?$40Zoom$"Link/a

So the expanded edition of the novelization of _Last Jedi_ came out, and with it a bunch of new information. Like Kylo/Ben wanting to become a great pilot, and Hux firing upon Poe because Poe claimed, to stall for time, that General Leia had a message from his mom. Also, Ben/Kylo was more like 19 rather than 15, like I presumed he was and put in several of my stories, when Luke nearly kills him, and this was possibly after finding out that Vader was his grandfather. I only know this because I looked it up on the Wookie, but I'm not planning on using it. Maybe in one-shots if I feel inclined to attempt to adhere to the New Canon, but very unlikely.

Anyways back to my Legends/EU with a dash of New Canon story, this was supposed to end in fluffy hair-braiding! But then re-watching _David and Lisa_ for the third time changed that outcome. I highly recommend the movie. David and Lisa/Muriel act almost like parallels for Matt/Kylo and Armitage, and, perhaps, foreshadowing their future.

Matt/Kylo Ren, in a way, said "I love you" to Armitage in his declaration of not abandoning him. Which compared to Anakin's 9-year-old-self declaring that he'll marry Padmé one day to her face, Matt/Kylo are progressing normally. I do have plans for Armitage and Matt/Kylo exploring that "love" declaration later, but not in the next one-shot.

Next one-shot is experimental for me because I'm writing it in 1st person through Yun-Shuno's thousand eyes! Also, it's supposed to take place on Hapes, where the planet is readying for a double wedding, and Armitage meets a surprising character. I won't reveal who, but I'll say it's not Tenel Ka Djo, Mara Jade, Jaina Jade, or Jacen Jade because they have been mentioned/established in some of my other stories, so they're not really surprising.

And depending how it goes, we might be approaching the series endgame.


End file.
